Alicia Davis
So, Stacie, this seems to be the season of retreats. We’ve had so many organizations coming to us and saying, “You know, we really think that we want some time that is focused so that we can be strategic”, right?

Stacie Watson
Yeah, you know, I mean, I think a retreat has so many – just has so many benefits for teams. I mean, part of it is just we’re not doing our normal day-to-day. A lot of times teams are dispersed, and so they get to be in the same space together, which is very nice. There’s usually food involved, which is also very nice.

Alicia Davis
Always, always great.

Stacie Watson
Always nice to break bread together. And so, you know, as we’ve been thinking about just how powerful these experiences have been, even just for us as facilitators, and then I think also, hopefully, for the folks in the room, we started wondering, like, what would it look like if if there’s a team that’s watching, you know, a leader or staff member watching this video, and it’s just not the right time for a retreat. Like, it’s not possible with vacations; maybe the budget is low. You know, whatever it is. I was just we were sort of wondering how you might create a little bit of a retreat-like experience without necessarily doing a full-blown retreat, and I had some thoughts about that, right?

Alicia Davis
Well, yeah, and I think, you know, I do think that, if it’s possible, getting out of the office, even if it’s for lunch, right? Even if it’s more of a conversation over lunch, and you know, maybe bring a specific kind of question to brainstorm or just talk about. That might be one option, right?

Stacie Watson
Yeah, absolutely. I think another thing, and one of the things I’ve really appreciated in some of the retreats I’ve had the opportunity to facilitate, is that people are using it as an opportunity to sort of take a moment to celebrate what we do really well as a team, to really just like literally write it on a flip chart or on a whiteboard, like just say it out loud. This is what we do really well, and then think about the things that we struggle with. Maybe it’s a particular program – or whatever it could be – and in the moment where we’re not necessarily, you know, in the heat of the moment of our workday, but we’ve sort of stepped away for an hour to be able to kind of brainstorm ways that we could do things differently or things to try. It’s been actually really powerful to see teams kind of dive into that as well.

Alicia Davis
Yeah, starting with that energy, right? What we’ve accomplished, because we can always get so kind of bogged down in oh we always have so much more to do. Really stepping back, that celebration energy, focusing on what we’re doing well and then building on that – huge in terms of opening up creativity and really having people feel a connection and, “Oh yeah, what we’re doing really matters.”

Stacie Watson
Yeah. So for everyone watching our video, we invite you to consider what a little mini-retreat might look like for your team. You know, it might be an hour, 90 minutes. It could be lunch, as you said, Alicia, or breakfast. Just an opportunity to take a moment, a few moments out of a busy day, and just really be together in a different way.

Alicia Davis
That’s right. That’s right. So always happy to talk with you. If you’re interested, you can reach out to us at info@tlstransforms.com, and I’m Alicia Davis…

Stacie Watson
I’m Stacie Watson…

Alicia Davis
Thank you so much.

Stacie Watson
Thank you.